A North Carolina woman with four children says that the first person to get a cut of her $188 million Powerball lottery win will be the Lord "because I wouldn't have none of it if it wasn't for God."

Marie Holmes, a resident of Shallotte, claims she is among the three people who were lucky enough to buy a winning Powerball ticket. The actual jackpot total is $564 million, so Holmes' piece of the pie rounds out to about $188 million, according to WECT-TV in Wilmington.

The 26-year-old single woman has four children, one of whom has cerebral palsy. WECT-TV reports that Holmes previously worked at McDonald's and Wal-Mart but had to be at home full time in order to take care of her children. more >>

The Rev. Franklin Graham, president of Samaritans' Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, believes that the sexual revolution of the 1960s has "severely weakened" the United States from within.

"Our culture, like ancient cultures that ultimately were destroyed in large part due to their own moral depravity, has been severely weakened," Graham wrote in the February issue of Decision magazine.

"A stable family unit committed to the truth and precepts of the Bible was once the foundation and backbone of our nation. That model is now the exception, not the rule," he asserted. more >>

Sudanese government forces systematically raped and beat at least 221 women and girls in a series of organized door-to-door attacks in Darfur last year, a leading human rights watchdog group announced on Wednesday.

In releasing a 48-page report, Human Rights Watch detailed how Sudanese army troops went from house to house in the North Darfur town of Tabit last October and raped over 221 civilian girls and women in just a 36-hour timespan.

"The deliberate attack on Tabit and the mass rape of the town's women and girls is a new low in the catalog of atrocities in Darfur," Human Rights Watch Africa Director Daniel Bekele told reporters. more >>

A New Jersey judge hearing a lawsuit made against a sexual orientation change therapy group has decided to bar the testimony of experts who consider homosexuality a mental disorder.

State Superior Court Judge Peter F. Bariso Jr. ruled last week that Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing (JONAH) could not bring certain experts in due to their position that homosexuality should still be considered a mental illness.

"The overwhelming weight of scientific authority concludes that homosexuality is not a disorder or abnormal. The universal acceptance of that scientific conclusion – save for outliers such as JONAH – requires that any expert opinions to the contrary must be barred," wrote Bariso.more >>

Accomplished neurosurgeon and possible Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson has called for "true tolerance" after the Southern Poverty Law Center labeled him an "extremist" over his views on gay marriage.

In a statement released Monday, Carson remarked that it "is important for us to once again advocate true tolerance."

"When embracing traditional Christian values is equated to hatred, we are approaching the stage where wrong is called right and right is called wrong," said Carson.more >>